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Fabien Deze
Published on
Nov. 17, 2024 at 1:16 p.m.
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During the year 2025, the parish group of Mantes-la-Jolie (Yvelines) should experience its fourth priest in the space of two years. Father Étienne Guillet, in office since September 2024, has just announced that he has been appointed bishop of the diocese of Saint-Denis-en-France. He will take up his duties on February 16, 2025 and will therefore remain in Mantes-la-Jolie for the next three months.
“With my heart a little tight”
“I accept the mission of becoming successor of the apostles for (our) diocese,” he declared in a video posted on social networks. I pay attention to my parishioners in Mantes-la-Jolie. With a slightly heavy heart, I leave them. I would only have been their pastor, their priest, for a few months. »
Well known in Yvelines for having passed through Houilles, Carrières-sur-Seine, Trappes and finally Mantes-la-Jolie, Father Étienne Guillet will therefore leave the department for Seine-Saint-Denis.
Two priests appointed bishop in less than a year
After the long reign of the father Matthieu Williamson (2014-2023), the parish group of Mantes-la-Jolie is struggling to find a long-term successor.
Installed in September 2023, the father Matthieu Dupont had left Mantes only six months later, following his appointment as bishop of Laval (Mayenne) by Pope Francis. And now history repeats itself a few months later with Father Étienne Guillet.
“The parishioners of Mantes-la-Jolie will once again find themselves without a priest for a few months. I would like to express to them all my concern and my prayers. Mgr Stanislas Lalanne, bishop emeritus of Pontoise, has accepted, in addition to the missions already entrusted by the Holy See and the Conference of Bishops of France, the office of parish administrator until the summer of 2025. With the three priests present on the parish, he will ensure that parish life continues for the best of all. »
A successor before summer 2025?
Contacted, the diocese of Versailles acknowledges that it is facing a fairly rare situation, with the close start of two priests. “We will do our best to ensure that there is a successor quickly. » Before next summer? In September 2025? Difficult to answer this question at the moment.
A hard blow for parishioners
In the parish of Mantes-la-Jolie, the departure of Father Étienne Guillet is inevitably a hard blow.
“It’s been two consecutive years that the situation has been recurring, it’s difficult for Mantes which has a large parish,” laments Élodie Henry, member of the parish’s pastoral council. We just heard the news and we're a little disillusioned. Without a priest, without a leader, it is more complicated to move projects forward, whether for Advent or Lent… The parishioners feel a little abandoned. But like Father Dupont, Father Guillet will make a very good bishop. »
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